Edible Cities by Judith Anger, Dr. Immo Fiebrig and Martin Schnyder

"It will help you to grow your own fruit, vegetables, herbs and even mushrooms in small spaces in the most ecological way possible. Edible Cities shows you why the urban landscape can be a great place for permaculture."

The three authors met in 2010 at the third Permaculture in Practice course on sepp holzer's Krameterhof farm. The one year training programme had a profound impact on them and they wanted to do something to make a difference to the world, so they came together to write a book to inspire city dwellers to find ways to make meaningful changes in their lives. Whilst it includes all the basics you need to understand what permaculture is, its history, and how it differs from organic agriculture, where it really shines is in the wide range of totally inspiring examples it provides, from all over the world.

I recently read Permaculture in Pots by Juliet Kemp and I think the two books complement each other very well. While Juliet's book starts off focusing in very close and then working out, Edible Cities is much more 'top-down' in its outlook, and has a very cosmopolitan approach.

In its own words

The intention of this book is to inspire readers to spot existing wasted spaces in their cities and make intelligent use of them... In Edible Cities we want to show how people have discovered new solutions and explored fresh territory in response to difficult circumstances. This is with few resources, without state subsidies and without government aid. Many of these solutions could be initially ridiculed as isolated cases, but we can see each one as a nucleus, demonstrating and inspiring alternative solutions

The first inspiration is a two page article about a luxury hotel set on a volcanic island off the coast of Brazil. Rather than have fresh produce flown in they set up an orchard and hydroponic beds, which form a salad bar around the restaurant's terrace. The second inspiration, again with two pages, returns to Vienna to look at the work of Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, an architect who believes that when a new building is raised then "the area taken away from nature should be returned once construction is complete, by planting on the roof or in other parts of the building." The cover of the book sports a photograph of one of his rather enchanting creations. And then to a French chateau with Baroque style geometric gardens which grow polycultures of vegetables that are harvested to stop the fruit weighing the plants down, and then given away to visitors.

The range of projects rather blew me away. The book went on to describe vegetable orchestras and the history of guerrilla gardening and then stepped back a while to let me absorb all those ideas while it tried to get me back down to earth with a chapter designed to encourage us all to actually become gardeners, with thoughts on self-sufficiency, waste, materials, legalities, allotments, community gardens, pick-your-own and community supported agriculture.

By this point I was feeling rather stretched out, with my head still in the clouds but my feet planted firmly back on the ground. The next chapter, which forms the bulk of the book, took every opportunity to fill me with more examples, each rounded off with practical permaculture tips. So I learned about how Sepp uses garbage tower planters to feed the poor and homeless in Columbia, Brazil and Thailand, how Todmorden in the UK became an edible town, and then, just when I'd gotten used to my head being dragged all over the world, I found myself reading an interview about the occupy movement by my friend and neighbour, Dennis Posthumus, rounded off with a page about using old shopping trolleys as planters.

There are plenty more projects to inspire you too, from chilli peppers in the ganglands of Mexico to making raised beds out of used tyres in Detroit. Also, my personal favourite, Palaver Under the apple tree. This is a project in Eastern Austria in which around twenty German speaking families and individuals, from Kurdistan, Bosnia, the Americas, Africa, Nepal, Austria and Germany cultivate the fruits and vegetables common to their homes. The whole project is designed to promote communication, with garden beds laid out like the veins on a leaf with no formal boundaries between the area allotted to each member.

The book is rounded off with a chapter about plants and compost, and finally a helpful section with contacts and resources, suggestions for further reading and an open letter by sepp holzer to encourage land reform, ensuring that every citizen of earth has access to land.

But I'm going to give the last word to a quote from the book by Dennis, who I visited recently at his project in Vale da Sarvinda

“It’s clear that real change can only start in ourselves, with a return to a healthy lifestyle. The demand for such a change, to a life closer to nature and in harmony with our surroundings, is there. It’s time to make that change. Only then can our dream of a different world become reality. Urban gardening is a way of showing the 99% of people, what this new culture might look like.”

The three authors met in 2010 at the third Permaculture in Practice course on Sepp Holzer's Krameterhof farm. The one year training programme had a profound impact on them and they wanted to do something to make a difference to the world, so they came together to write a book to inspire city dwellers to find ways to make meaningful changes in their lives. Whilst it includes all the basics you need to understand what permaculture is, its history, and how it differs from organic agriculture, where it really shines is in the wide range of totally inspiring examples it provides, from all over the world.

I recently read Permaculture in Pots by Juliet Kemp and I think the two books complement each other very well. While Juliet's book starts off focusing in very close and then working out, Edible Cities is much more 'top-down' in its outlook, and has a very cosmopolitan approach.

In its own words

The intention of this book is to inspire readers to spot existing wasted spaces in their cities and make intelligent use of them... In Edible Cities we want to show how people have discovered new solutions and explored fresh territory in response to difficult circumstances. This is with few resources, without state subsidies and without government aid. Many of these solutions could be initially ridiculed as isolated cases, but we can see each one as a nucleus, demonstrating and inspiring alternative solutions

The first inspiration is a two page article about a luxury hotel set on a volcanic island off the coast of Brazil. Rather than have fresh produce flown in they set up an orchard and hydroponic beds, which form a salad bar around the restaurant's terrace. The second inspiration, again with two pages, returns to Vienna to look at the work of Friedensreich Regentag Dunkelbunt Hundertwasser, an architect who believes that when a new building is raised then "the area taken away from nature should be returned once construction is complete, by planting on the roof or in other parts of the building." The cover of the book sports a photograph of one of his rather enchanting creations. And then to a French chateau with Baroque style geometric gardens which grow polycultures of vegetables that are harvested to stop the fruit weighing the plants down, and then given away to visitors.

The range of projects rather blew me away. The book went on to describe vegetable orchestras and the history of guerrilla gardening and then stepped back a while to let me absorb all those ideas while it tried to get me back down to earth with a chapter designed to encourage us all to actually become gardeners, with thoughts on self-sufficiency, waste, materials, legalities, allotments, community gardens, pick-your-own and community supported agriculture.

By this point I was feeling rather stretched out, with my head still in the clouds but my feet planted firmly back on the ground. The next chapter, which forms the bulk of the book, took every opportunity to fill me with more examples, each rounded off with practical permaculture tips. So I learned about how Sepp uses garbage tower planters to feed the poor and homeless in Columbia, Brazil and Thailand, how Todmorden in the UK became an edible town, and then, just when I'd gotten used to my head being dragged all over the world, I found myself reading an interview about the occupy movement by my friend and neighbour, Dennis Posthumus, rounded off with a page about using old shopping trolleys as planters.

There are plenty more projects to inspire you too, from chilli peppers in the ganglands of Mexico to making raised beds out of used tyres in Detroit. Also, my personal favourite, Palaver Under the Apple Tree. This is a project in Eastern Austria in which around twenty German speaking families and individuals, from Kurdistan, Bosnia, the Americas, Africa, Nepal, Austria and Germany cultivate the fruits and vegetables common to their homes. The whole project is designed to promote communication, with garden beds laid out like the veins on a leaf with no formal boundaries between the area allotted to each member.

The book is rounded off with a chapter about plants and compost, and finally a helpful section with contacts and resources, suggestions for further reading and an open letter by sepp holzer to encourage land reform, ensuring that every citizen of earth has access to land.

But I'm going to give the last word to a quote from the book by Dennis, who I visited recently at his project in Vale da Sarvinda

“It’s clear that real change can only start in ourselves, with a return to a healthy lifestyle. The demand for such a change, to a life closer to nature and in harmony with our surroundings, is there. It’s time to make that change. Only then can our dream of a different world become reality. Urban gardening is a way of showing the 99% of people, what this new culture might look like.”

And this book will help you do just that.

Connected or reconnected. Fit with the right cycles and in the right season. Nourished and nurtured with natural energy. Aware of place and part.

After Burra's review above it is hard to add anything I find this book inspiring and encouraging, but my lower score for this book is due to a fact that I find this book quite chaotic and when it comes to describing practical techniques, not clear enough in some cases (as it always is for me in sepp holzer's and his followers publications). It seems that some things are so obvious for Sepp and his students that they do not bother to go into details. My impression is that the authors were trying to cover too many topics in a small volume book, my personal preference is to read more focused and detailed publications.

My lowest rating to date, it is still a worthwhile book at 7 out of 10 acorns.

As some of you know, I won a copy of this book right here on Permies some time ago. It isn't a large book, clocking in at a mere ## pages, but I have found it incredibly difficult to finish. This isn't a detraction on the book, but rather a simple statement of my own style. With the endorsement of sepp holzer, I really wanted to love it, but it just isn't the right fit for me.

The book is laid out in short chapters, largely focused on specific cases. There are gems of information there and lots to get inspired by, but for me, I really would have liked to dwell on each chapter in greater detail. A lot of the chapters felt like they were just skimming across the surface without offering enough substance.

Strange as it sounds, the short and (pardon the wording here) shallow dips into the subject matter are a large part of what made it so hard to read. I just couldn't get drawn into it like I do with other books. Without those deeper looks, I felt like I was being held at arm's length.

I am also going to agree with Richard Gorny about how there seemed to be moments where information presented was done from a stance that assumed you already knew what was needed to fill in the gaps. While I could usually bridge the gaps, I imagine someone new to permaculture would find it a very difficult and confusing read in those moments.

Overall, I would recommend this book as a place to get ideas, but not one if you are interested in a how-to or in-depth study. If you find yourself weighed down by long and ultra-detailed chapters in some books, this book may be perfect for you. I suspect someone could readily read a chapter here or there very easily between other things. A five-minute break would be enough to finish a chapter. Go to this book to be inspired, then go looking elsewhere for the deeper information about whatever it was that you were inspired by.